11 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL DISTANCE PROGRAM
By Russ Ebbets, DC
Off The Road Column
Children Running Can v. Should
I lecture frequently in USA Track and Field’s Coaching Education Program. One of my areas is distance training. At the end of the lecture I summarize the presentation with these "11 Keys to a Successful Distance Running Program." These points are the result of personal study, over a decade of coaching and the good fortune to have been blessed with athletes whose faith in the program and motivation towards accomplishment synergistically combined to produce some great results. The simple thing was never simple.
- Winning is a learned skill.
- Run on grass as much as possible.
- Limit you runners to three hard efforts per season.
- Rest your best people in unimportant races.
- Avoid the "killer double" of mile-two mile.
- Never double a
steeplechaser – lobby to change the high school distance to
2000m.
- Limit the number of high school cross-country races to 11-12, in college to 7.
- Run high school cross-country dual meets at 2.5 miles.
- Make the home course flat and fast. Train for speed.
- Do not let high school kids race further than 5000m.
- Let frosh be frosh, don’t move them up.
There are many factors that go into the mix of a champion. Some are measurable; speed, strength and endurance while dedication, perseverance and decisiveness are more difficult to quantify.
The Bible says, "Many run
the race, but only one will win, run so as to win." One needs to prepare
as a champion would. Goal oriented behavior, personal sacrifice, an action
oriented mindset, discipline, dedication and a directed willfulness are
all "skills" that can be modeled, molded and learned. These are the skills
of a champion. Run so as to win.
Although few of us consider this the days of our lives are numbered. We can influence "the number" by how we live our life. Food selection, personal habits, exercise patterns, environmental and genetic factors all play a role.
It is a logical extension that the number of strides in our competitive running career are also "numbered." Training factors such as shoe selection, workout content, the type of training we do (distance runs, speed work, etc.), coupled with our restoration and regeneration means (flexibility, chiropractic, massage, vitamin supplementation, hydration) are all factors that can influence both the quality and length of a running career.
Another factor is training surface. Running is a "ground contact sport." While our bodies are resilient there is a wear and tear that results from athletic participation. A 150-pound runner places about 35 tons of stress on each leg per mile. That doesn’t count the ground reaction forces that can multiply the stress four to seven times.
Hard level surfaces offer
little shock absorption and create increased wear and tear. Grass is a
more forgiving and less stressful surface. The fact that grass surfaces
are slightly uneven enhances one’s balance and proprioception playing a
secondary role in injury prevention.
I cannot point to any studies to justify this statement. Experience has taught me this. Even trying to define a "hard effort" can be tough. A race with a long kick, a hot day, a race double, a fast race with a significant time drop – all these factors may make for a hard effort.
Why three hard efforts? My
experience has taught me that performance becomes erratic when there are
more than three hard efforts per season. There comes to be good races and
bad races that are impossible to plan for, which erode confidence and
create doubt. Doubt is a cancer of the mind. Race so as to win, with three
hard efforts per season.
Cross-country seasons are generally too long. It is a bad idea to have a high school runner compete more than 11-12 times. The frequent race schedule does not allow for adequate recovery between races. Scheduling commitments may require more racing. Because of this it becomes necessary to periodically and systematically rest runners.
This will be a difficult rule to follow if you are coaching a team with five, seven or ten runners. For a successful season everyone must run every race and do well. It becomes a long season for everyone.
Study the race schedule. What are the dates one can rest people and still do well without a full team effort? Resolve to strategically sit out a runner. This makes rule #3 easier to implement.
This will also develop the leadership by others on the team. They might win or at least they will know that they have produced under pressure. Leadership is a learned skill. See rule #1.
A coach once told me, "You
have to let them run all the races – they want to!" Using his logic I
countered that we should let them "drink and drive" because they want to.
He looked at me like I was an idiot, but he did not have anything else to
say. And his teams never beat mine.
Steve Prefontaine has been all but deified since his death. What he could have been is the subject of much speculation. He was the national high school 2-mile record holder with a time of 8:41 and change. That is back-to-back 4:20 miles. As a high schooler he made international teams. He was a man.
Pre ran the killer double three times in high school. He doubled in the 880-mile four more times. He doubled seven times in high school. His other high school marks were a 4:06 mile and a 1:51 half. I don’t get what coaches don’t see. What is the long-term goal of a coach who lets a kid double seven times in a month?
There is a cumulative stress to distance running. Excessive doubling diverts energy used by the body for growth and development to recovery and survival. The future is spent on the present.
Most coaches are quick to
use Pre as a model of performance excellence. Unfortunately for some
reason they can’t see his high school career as a model for good sense.
The 3000m steeplechase is an exhausting event. It is a commonly held belief that the
fatigue created by running the 3000m steeple is equivalent to that of running 10,000m, 6.2 miles. The reason for this is that not only does the steeple require one to run fast but also the immovable barriers and water jump require one to jump and forcefully land over 30x during the course of a race – from one leg to one leg. The race not only exhausts one’s aerobic abilities but also one’s strength qualities with all the jumping.
Watch most any high school race. For three or four laps the barriers are negotiated smoothly. As fatigue sets in around 4+ laps each barrier is followed by a lengthening recovery period. The strength stores in the athlete are exhausted. The runner struggles to regain momentum for 3-5 seconds and another barrier occurs. The last two laps are done in fits and spurts.
A 2000m race would allow the high schooler to run hard virtually the whole way. Were they to continue at the pace they would produce an excellent 3000m-steeple time. With two years maturity and developmental training they will.
Why never double? If it
takes one day to recover for each five minutes raced and the race produces
the fatigue associated with a 33-34 minute race (a good high school time)
it would take close to a week to recover from one 3000m steeple race.
Doubling in the steeple is more of a killer double than the mile-two mile.
Racing should be used for performance and development. The body will adapt to the stresses placed upon it. There is a cumulative stress to distance running. If the stress is so great or the recovery inadequate energy stores marked for development are shifted towards survival, the result being stunted growth.
The stress accumulates because of inadequate recovery time. This can be shown with numbers. Most high school races are 5000m, with a good male time being 17 minutes, 21+ for females. If it takes the body one-day to recover for every five minutes raced it would take a male 3.4 days and a female 4.2 days to recover for each 5000m race.
The average high school program races twice per week beginning in the last week of September and ending about the second week of November. This presents the opportunity to race 15 times using a twice-weekly schedule. The male race schedule barely allows recovery for two races per week and the women are on a negative spiral right from the start. What makes this argument more competing is that the stress and recovery from hard training days is not even factored in.
All this underscores the
importance of rule #4 – periodically resting runners from unimportant
races. This would allow a 15-date schedule, but not everyone runs 15
dates.
There are several reasons for this. First go back to rule #7. A 2.5-mile race for a male might average 14 minutes to complete requiring 2.8 days of recovery or about 14 hours quicker recovery than a 5000m race. For a female a 17-minute race would require 3.4 days, more than 19 hours quicker or almost a full day less than needed for a 5000m race.
There will also be less stress over the course of a season. Ten races at 14 minutes v. 17 minutes (5000m) for males would mean 30 minutes less race stress on the body over the course of a season. The difference is even greater for women. This produces the equivalent of two fewer races per season.
A second point is speed. The object of racing is to run fast. Any race over three minutes requires endurance. On a championship level speed always wins out over the last 400-800m. Would it not make sense, on the developmental levels, to make speed the pre-eminent quality to train for?
Once upon a time the course
record holder for Van Cortlandt Park at 2.5 miles was a guy named Marty
Liquori. He broke four minutes for the mile while still in high school.
Jim Ryun held the high school mile record for 30 years at 3:55 and
change. His high school cross-country races were two miles. Neither ever
raced 5000m in high school. The best person still won.
Endurance is an easier quality to develop than speed. In fact, physiologists would argue that speed is genetically determined by muscle fiber type, the fast glycolytic fibers. None the less speed is a technique that can be done right or wrong. And the difference between right and wrong is 10% as it relates to time.
Improving neuromuscular function can influence this 10% – by coordinating the body to quickly execute the desired actions. Part of this coordination is leg turnover rate. Reducing the time of single support ground contact by 1/100th of a second in a 2.5-mile race reduces the total race time by 20 seconds. Reducing the time of ground contact support is a speed action.
Shorter, flatter courses
allow for faster running. This allows runners to win with speed. Speed
endurance will develop as will pure endurance. Use endurance as a
secondary tactic. This needs to be said – all things being equal (which
they never are) the faster runner will win, note the word faster.
There are, but there are few, high school runners who are strong enough to aggressively race 5000m. The rest must submit to the race and become passive in part. Champions are not passive.
We have discussed recovery times – which are more of a factor in a five-mile, ten-mile or longer race. Another thing to consider is leg speed. Long races train slow actions. This is inconsistent with the philosophy of speed. Tactics are generally simpler and take longer to implement. The races unfold slowly; the need to think quickly is less necessary.
A long run, a steady state
run can have a positive training effect. A long race does little to
prepare one for the rigors of a cross-country or a track season.
I always dressed the freshman team in large t-shirts. They never fit, too big. In the pictures the frosh team looked like hell. One time a mother brought this to my attention, "You brought the wrong shirts," she said. I told her I didn’t. I told her that everything I did with the team had a reason. I told her I was encouraging them to grow. That is a true story.
Winning is a learned skill and competition is intimidating. Large invitationals, with the flurry of activity, the colors and sounds can be terrifying to a frosh. Varsity competition will simply overwhelm them. Freshmen need time to get used to this.
A strong developmental program gives the freshman something to grow to, something to hope for, something to dream about, to develop an expectancy for. Freshmen identify more with their frosh teammates than with seniors. They make plans together and will motivate each other, now and in the future. This develops a sense of cohesiveness and team spirit. Great teams have great spirit.
Let the varsity be a goal. Goal achievement generates excitement. Excitement breeds enthusiasm. Enthusiasm precedes success. Success comes with growth. Encourage them to grow.
Athletic development should be the result of managed control. The coach can control most all the "rules" on the list. Doing enough things right allows great things to happen. Train for speed. Don’t over race. Develop the patience to let development come with the turn of a calendar page and not the sweep of a second hand. Winning is a learned skill so run and train and live so as to win.